Hi! I’m so glad you decided to stop by and get to know me better! My name is Danielle and I’m the author and owner here at The Country Penny.
I’ve been where you are. When you are overwhelmed, stressed, and not quite sure how you’re going to make the money stretch any further. When you’re not sure how you’re going to ever escape the mounting debt you find yourself in. I’ve been there before, and unfortunately I’ve been there more than once.
I’ve been debt free in the past, my husband and I paid off over $20,000 in debt and saved a small nest egg.
Unfortunately, life happened, I ended up in the hospital a few different times, my husband took a job that promised overtime that never happened, I went back to school, and we once again found ourselves drowning in debt.
This time though, I’m inviting you to come with us on our journey to financial freedom. I’ve done it before and I will do it again, and I’d love if you decided to come along on this crazy ride with me.
My husband and I grew up in neighboring small towns. We love the rural life and have always dreamed of raising our family in the same lifestyle. My husband had three wonderful children when we met and being a stepmom has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life.
I always thought I would have a baby or two of my own as well, but after years of trying, I had finally accepted that it wasn’t meant to be. Since it didn’t seem like I was going to get to have a baby, I decided that I might as well have a career that would make decent money. I went back to school, got my Associates degree and went to work on my Bachelors and was intending on going to grad school to earn my Masters as well.
About halfway through my Bachelors program, I ended up pregnant again. But, this time, it worked! When I saw my baby boy, I knew that all I really wanted was to be his mom. I wanted all of it, the smiles, the late nights, the first laughs, the teething, the messy diapers, I wanted to be there for every moment.
My first semester of school I was able to arrange my schedule so that my husband could be with him when I was in class. It was a ton of work but we made it through. The next semester I wasn’t so lucky. When my schedule was all figured out, I would have to leave my six month old baby in daycare for around 20 hours a week.
I was devastated.
I know lots of moms take their children to daycare but it wasn’t what I wanted. I desperately started looking for some way to make an income without having to put my baby in daycare. That night on Pinterest I saw the first blog income report. I had no idea that bloggers could even earn money, but if other people could make money doing this, why couldn’t I? Money was crazy tight, but when I talked to my husband about it we decided that I would take a semester off and give blogging a shot. I signed up for hosting and went to work.
We agreed that I could try it for a year, at which point my baby would be a year and a half old, and if I could generate an income in that time than I could keep blogging and stay home with my little one. If not, I would go back to school and finish my degree and pursue a career in my field.
Which brings us to today. I’m giving this blog everything I’ve got. There is nothing in the world I want more than to stay home with my baby boy. I want to give him the kind of lifestyle I had growing up in a small town.
The only way I see to do that is to make our financial situation more stable, get out of debt and find our path to financial freedom.